Rise of the Ultimate Peasant (BtVS/ WC3/ Multiple) Interlude – Surviving the Darkness

Author’s Note: Back after a long hiatus. The previous drafts of Book 2 will be scraped and reused in the follow-up continuation.

__________________________________

<< Chapter 1 to 3

Story Title: Rise of the Ultimate Peasant

Crossover: BtVS/ Warcraft III/ Stargate/ Multiple

Disclaimer: I do not own, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Warcraft games verse, Stargate TV verse, or any other fandoms I will be dabbling in. This is a work of fan fiction. Written without profit, for the enjoyment of fans of these great fandoms.

Summary: Magic is gone from the world, and chaos rides the winds. In a battle for supernatural survival, those that seek to protect and defend need to band together… to create the Alliance.

Drusilla and Spike’s Interlude – Surviving the Darkness

1.0 – Re-souled

Two and a half months before the death of magic…

Euphoria filled her shuddering body as the glistering and powerful blood on her lips seeped into her stained and unworthy veins. Collapsing onto the floor as a warmth unlike any other she had ever felt wrapped itself around her body like a warm embrace of her parents. Her parents before they had begun to despise her… her parents who were long murdered by Angelus.

She knew the moment her soul, her humanity was returned to her, the world suddenly becoming clear, as her haze of insanity and dark urges were shattered. Her mouth opened in wordless agony, Drusilla weathered the thundering storm of all her memories, both human and the deeds that her vampire counterpart had done. The atrocities her vampire essence had used her lifeless body to commit were enough to make her weep and contemplate killing herself in repentance.

But she still had important tasks at hand, a different sort of repentance that would enable her to save more lives than those her vampire essence had taken. The visions that her vampire essence had witnessed only minutes before came to her mind. Drusilla knew she had to act fast, Spike would have heard the commotion by now, she needed to ensure the boy’s survival and pass him her warning.

Biting back her emotional and mental agonies, Drusilla gasped out in a raspy voice. “…Hurry young one! Spike is coming!”

The young man’s eyes widened, before quickly crouching down on the floor and began slamming on it. Drusilla did not know what power he wield, she could only hope whatever he was doing would save him from Spike.

The basement door slammed open as a raging Spike rushed in with his gathered lesser vampires. Drusilla blinked back her weariness even as the changes wroth on her body and mind threatened to knock her unconscious under a tide of grief and guilt.

“Hurry!” Drusilla shouted her warning, even as her left hand latched onto Spike’s leg as he rushed passed her to reach at the boy. “Hundreds of worlds, trillons of lives crying out in pain. You are the only one who can save them, set them free! You must survive!”

Spike stared down at her in confusion and betrayal before there was no time to think… or feel… as everything dissolved into swirls of… light.

OoooO

1.0 – Drusilla’s stats

Designation: Master Vampire with a Soul

Statistic Chart

Level 1

Name: Drusilla Sellars

Attack Type: Hero

Cost: 230 Gold, 0 Lumber, 5 Food

Ground Attack: 23-30 [26 avg]

Armor: 4 Strength: 18 Agility: 17

Intelligence: 18 Hit Points: 440 Mana: 295

Second Sight [UNLOCKED], a passive ability that allows the Vampire with a Soul, Drusilla, to view the past, present, or future.

Thrall [LOCKED], an active ability that allows the Vampire with a Soul, Drusilla, to take control of the mind of the target for a period of time. 15 MP per use.

Telepathy [LOCKED], an active ability that allows the Vampire with a Soul, Drusilla, to read the mind of a target. 20 MP per use.

Healing [LOCKED], an active ability that allows the Vampire with a Soul, Drusilla, to heal a target. 10 MP per use.

OoooO

Two weeks later…

Returning to her second life was an experience that Drusilla was unable to describe even now. There had been joy and relief, that the tasks she and a higher being had set for herself would be able to manifest, enabling her to repay for the sins done by her vampire essence.

There had however been great rage, especially when she laid eyes on Angelus standing in front of her calmly. Angelus who had tormented her during the brief years centuries ago, when she was alive. Angelus who had made her believed that her gift of visions was a curse, making her believed that she was a demon spawn. Angelus who murdered her family in front of her, sired her, and then had sex over her dying body.

Taken over by emotions at those memories, Drusilla had lashed out at the unresisting vampire. It was much later when Xander pulled her away from the unconscious man, shielding her from an enraged Slayer, that she remembered Angelus was now Angel, a vampire with a soul much like her. A man who was also repaying for his sins.

Infused with partial guilt, and yet also a savage kind of joy for avenging her family, Drusilla had fled into the mansion which Xander had created to summon her. Xander would then return to the mansion, now situated deep in the desert at the outskirts of Sunnydale, giving Drusilla an equivalent of a mental hug before retreating into a room that Spike had used as a store room, making it his own.

Alexander Lavelle Harris, her ‘Lord’ if she was to be particular, or at least that was what the indoctrinated memory she received during her… rebirth… identified the young man as. She knew instinctively through that memory, that young Xander was the one who created her, he who was the Ultimate Peasant who could Build Anything.

She was tied to him by mental and most probably soul links, and must obey his every command. Those links connecting her to him were geas of sorts, enabling the Lord to control his creations.

It was frightening how much power the young man wields. Yet it was also comforting that at least Xander was the one wielding that power. The young man might have his struggles, but Drusilla knew enough from the few times he opened up his mind to Drusilla, in a bid to get to know her, that the young man would at the very least do his best not to misuse his abilities.

The warm soft glows of her refurnished room, set her heart at peace as Drusilla sat on the window still languishing in the cool breeze blowing in from the open window. Though the magically created mansion was not connected to any power grid, especially so far from Sunnydale, its electrical outlets still somehow managed to produce usable electricity to allow for the use of common technological items.

In the two weeks since her creation, Xander had managed to pawn off some of his gold for usable currency, which he used to refurnish the dreary mansion. The master bedroom where Drusilla and Spike used to make their nest was converted to a storage area. Staying in the room gave her a sickening feeling, especially when she remembered the blood of those she sucked and killed when her vampire essence was in control of her body.

An equivalent of a mental knock distracted her.

Yes Xander? Drusilla sent back, biting down the urge to call the young man ‘Lord Xander’. She had been fighting the in-built indoctrination done to her psych since her rebirth. Something that Xander knew, and was most apologetic about, especially since the young man had no idea how to undo the automatic indoctrination of all his creations.

I… have thought about the favour you ask. Xander said, apprehension in his mental tone. I will grant it on the condition that you will be responsible for his actions.

Drusilla’s heart leapt to her throat. She had thought that Xander might take longer to get back to her about the favour she asked of him yesterday. I agreed. Drusilla said instantly. Hope blossoming in her heart.

Meet me at the front of the mansion. Xander replied, even as Drusilla leapt out of the window, into the courtyard.

In the distance, she could make out the clear figure of the looming tree of life, its roots ensnaring two Fountains of Health, the glistering waters of the fountains lighting up the giant tree with a bluish after light. High walls in the far distance surrounded much of the land, or sand if one was being technical, around the mansion.

Setting a quick pace, Drusilla easily reached the front of the mansion within a minute, the moon lighting her path.

Xander was already there waiting. Giving her a nod when he sighted her, he waved to the front pouch of the mansion even as a very familiar form appear at the spot.

“William.” Drusilla whispered in grief, eyeing the newly created vampire Spike, who was now walking towards Xander.

Xander handed Spike a cup in his hands, which the vampire drank without protest, causing him to collapse onto the ground, his body spasming wildly even as a golden glow settled around him.

OoooO

1.0 – William’s stats

Designation: Master Vampire with a Soul

Statistic Chart

Level 1

Name: William Pratt aka Spike

Attack Type: Hero

Cost: 260 Gold, 0 Lumber, 5 Food

Ground Attack: 26-33 [30 avg]

Armor: 4 Strength: 21 Agility: 17

Intelligence: 11 Hit Points: 600 Mana: 200

Poet’s soul [UNLOCKED], a passive ability that allows the Vampire with a Soul, Spike, to project emotions into poetries that he wrote and vocalised.

Thrall [LOCKED], an active ability that allows the Vampire with a Soul, Spike, to take control of the mind of the target for a period of time. 15 MP per use.

Love [LOCKED], a passive ability that allows the Vampire with a Soul, Spike, to gain an increase of +50 Hit Points and + 5 Strength per level when those he loves are within range.

Brute Strength [LOCKED], a passive ability that increases the strength of the Vampire with a Soul, Spike, by +5 per level.

OoooO

4 days later….

Somehow he had managed to weather the darkness in his soul, and come to terms with what his vampire self had done much easier than what Drusilla had accounted of her own struggles.

In a room that he had made his own, within the mansion where he, Drusilla and their young overlord were currently holed up in, William penned the next lines of his dark sonnet, completing the poem. The words flowed and even as he re-read what he had written on the paper, he could feel the agony radiating from the lines.

Poet’s Soul. A power wholly of his own. To imbue poems that he wrote with his own emotions. Mayhap that was how he had come to terms with the atrocities Spike, his counterpart, had done for the past centuries. For once he imbue his emotions into pen and paper, they were literally drained from him, etching themselves into the lines of his poems like some kind of enchantment.

Even now William felt a sense of bewilderment at the impossible power that he wields, not to mention the change that happened to young Xander. A change that Spike had been the cause of, and which Xander still blamed him for, though the younger boy had mellowed out the past days, they had even managed to be civil to one another before the boy had set off to Sunnydale with the Slayer and the rest of his group.

“William?” A soft lyrical voice asked from his doorway.

Looking up, William felt his heart caught in his throat as he sighted Drusilla leaning against his doorway, her hair moist, having most probably gotten out of the shower. Despite the fact that Drusilla had been the one that sired him, he had loved her since the beginning, a love that carried on when he became a vampire, a love that lasted even now.

A logical part of his brain knew he should hate her, yet Drusilla was as much a victim as he was. They had agree to remain apart until they figured out what they really meant to each other… so what was she doing here now?

“Is something wrong?” William asked getting up from his seat, stuffing the poem he had completed into his drawer.

“I have a vision.” Drusilla said with a frown. “The Watcher’s friend is in trouble. I am not sure when it will happen so we need to go to Sunnydale to warn them.”

“I will accompany you through the Way Gate then.” William offered. “If they are not at Rupert’s mansion, at least having the two of us searching Sunnydale will be better than one.”

OoooO

1.1 – New Beginnings

2 weeks after the death of Magic…

The visions of death and slaughter filled her mind, as they so often do these past week, ever since the Seed of Wonder had been destroyed. The moment the visions ended, Drusilla had reached out to Xander who had quickly allowed her in.

The Ska’ligath clans are moving to attack the Iáligath clans for their moon wells. It should be sometime within the week at night just as the moon is waning. Drusilla said as she mentally projected her latest visions to Xander.

Dammit. We’ve only just constructed the moon wells when the Iáligath joined the Alliance two days ago. Xander cursed mentally, his voice reaching her clearly even though Drusilla knew he was hundreds of miles away, setting up an Alliance outpost on another continent. I will send the Night Elves and Dragons of San Francisco outpost to defend the Iáligath. Thanks for the forewarning again.

How are the European outposts coming along? Drusilla asked, sensing the tiredness in Xander’s mental tone. The past week had been a flurry of activities for Xander in particular as he and his new minions from Wolfram and Hart began reaching out to the Light sided and Neutral clans of the supernatural world. The intention was to form an alliance, in order to sustain the friendlier supernatural creatures with magic from the moon wells.

The Alliance, thus aptly named, was intended to thus allow Xander, his army, and the allied clans control over the sources of magic remaining on Earth, thus gradually eradicating the dangerous and darker races / organisations of the supernatural world. Currently Xander’s “peacekeeping forces” were the only thing standing between the darker supernatural beings and outright slaughter of innocents and those in the Alliance.

Constructing the outposts aren’t a problem and getting together an Alliance army for each major country is surprisingly easy when you have an unlimited power source to produce them. Xander said wearily. Drusilla knew that if not for the need to control the chaos that would arise from the death of magic, Xander would never have called up so many fictional units brought to life in his armies. The problem is reaching those that need help in time… and I shudder to think where to house everyone I created once there is peace. Confining everyone in the barracks when they are not needed isn’t an answer.

I might have an idea to that. Drusilla mused. We can begin setting up cities hidden from ordinary sight around each of the outposts to serve as major Alliance settlements. The warding runes from the Xaneglte clans are capable of area wide invisibility. The cost to enchant the runes is magically draining which had limited their use in the past, but you are not bound by that limit.

The Xaneglte, they are those lizardmen from Brazil that were among the first neutrals to join aren’t they? Xander asked raking his memory. I don’t think I have ever personally visited them, except to send some wisps over to construct moon wells for them and park two dragons to protect the wells. How did you know about their ward stones?

You do know that most of the demons tribes or clans that joined have tried to pass Wolfram and Hart tributes for The Man? As in you? Drusilla mentioned a little dryly.

I thought I ordered them to return the gifts back to the Alliance? Xander said sounding confused.

It is bad form to return those gifts Xander, especially as the allied clans and organisation gave those items to Wolfram and Hart in order to ensure their continued survival. Returning those gifts would have offended or belittled them. You did give Rupert the authority to counterman your orders, and so he did. The items were catalogued and kept in a secure warehouse. I convinced Rupert to let me help and saw the ward stones in the catalogue. Drusilla answered.

Well… I guess you guys know what you are doing. I will pop by this warehouse this evening, maybe See it as a blueprint. If the ward stones are within, I maybe able to purchase them when I rebuild the structure. Xander said contemplatively. But building cities for the Alliances is one thing… who are going to manage them?

Leave that to me. Drusilla said firmly. You have the war and defending the Alliance to worry about. I can work with Rupert and others in Sunnydale to plan out the cities and how to run them. If need be, some of those whom you… assimilated and given new life, might have the skillsets to help us.

Drusilla sensed Xander mentally wincing at her words. Xander had managed to destroy the Hell God Glorificus by deconstructing the building she was in. Unfortunately not everyone were evacuated from the hotel during the deconstruction, and to let Glorificus escape from the hotel would have unleashed much more casualty. Xander had made the tough decision of deconstructing 23 real people from Earth just to destroy the Hell God.

He had recreated them later, granting them abilities beyond their comprehension. But unfortunately those powers comes with a price. Much like Drusilla and Willian, the second life Xander gave those people, also caused them to be bond to his will, taking away their free will should he command it. Not all of the 23 second lifers were happy campers with the situation. Xander himself had also been uncomfortable with the choice he had to make.

I guess Percy West might be able to help seeing that he was Laguna Loire from the Final Fantasy VIII game during Halloween night. Xander suggested. One interesting fact discovered when Xander deconstructed the 23 people in the hotel, had been that 7 of the second lifers were previously affected by Ethan Rayne’s Halloween spell. That in turn cause them to gain powers and abilities mirroring their Halloween counterparts, even memories in some cases. Laguna was a president of sorts in the game verse. He might be able to help with city planning.

What about those government soldiers who were in town to scout out Sunnydale? Drusilla asked. Among the 23 second lifers, were 4 soldiers from a secret government program. Their unit of 12 men was sent to Sunnydale during Halloween to scout out a suitable base of operations. When 2 of their men had gone missing during Halloween night, their stay in town was extended.

4 of the soliders, among whom was the captain of the unit, were caught in the hotel deconstruction. When they were given new life, they were most unhappy by the geas which Xander set on them preventing them from using their new powers in front of their fellow soldiers, who were still in the dark. Another geas was given to prevent them from revealing Xander and those in the Alliances to the government and those not in the know.

To say that those 4 soldiers were unhappy with Xander were an understatement. They had left town as fast as they could, mistakenly believing Xander’s hold over them would not reach that far. They had learnt since then. Drusilla knew Xander would sooner forget about those soldiers whose animosity bristled against his mind links, but unfortunately they were among those caught by Ethan’s Halloween spell, and 2 of them in particular gained very powerful abilities and memories from their Halloween counterparts. Those abilities might prove useful to the Alliance one day which meant that the 4 soldiers must be closely monitored.

Captain Riley Finn in particular possessed the memories and skillset of a Barbarian Overlord from the Heroes of Might and Magic game. He has the knowledge and skills to plan and manage cities meant for supernatural inhabitants. Drusilla pointed out.

I seriously doubt that Riley and his men will cooperate with us short of an outright command from me. Xander remarked with a grimance. And I don’t want to go down the dictator route unless necessary. Some of the Archmages, Paladins and Heroes from the Alliances have memories of managing or running a schools, organisations and towns. I will select a few and send them your way.

That will be a great help. Drusilla acknowledged. How goes Ian with his hunt for the starship?

He and his team of dragonriders are still combing the Amazon Basin sector by sector. Hopefully they will find the Alteran outpost by the time things settle down in the supernatural world. Xander hoped. At the very least, they had managed to secure three more alliances from the supernatural clans living in the area. And that’s three less supernatural parties we have to worry about…

OoooO

1 month later…

William sighed as he finished packing his meagre belongings, looking around the room he had made his home for the last two plus months. He and Xander had finally settled their bygones, with Xander acknowledging that William was not, and would never be Spike.

Xander had given him and Drusilla a stipend, as he did for all of those in his army. Though William had little need of it at the moment. He was part of the task force protecting Sunnydale the past few weeks from angry demons seeking answers as to Xander’s whereabouts. The fights that broke out had quickly risen William skill levels, and the loots that came from the fallen demons were more than enough to tide William through the next few months.

The supernatural cold war was winding down, with few of the world’s populace knowing that there was even a war going on. There had been several unpreventable catastrophe, like when an entire town was massacre by the Iénghon, serpent headed humanoids, who had tried to restore their innate magic via blood sacrifice. The demon clan was eradicated within the week, but that did not bring back the lives they have taken.

The Oseophlon of the Southern Seas, a water dwelling merfolk like race, were nearly wiped out after they joined the Alliance. The two Frost Wyrm protecting the Oseophlon underwater moon wells were overwhelmed by the Krakens who had dwelled in the deeps. Only one of the Frost Wyrm survived by the time Xander managed to raise and send an army of Naga Sea Witches their way. Of course the diversity of Xander’s powers had also spawned male Naga, who insisted on calling themselves the Naga Sea Lords.

The good news to come out of that disaster was that the Naga race was now widely accepted by the surviving Oseophlon and their brethren in the Northern, Eastern and Western Seas. With their almost similar body structures, the Naga had made the decision to settle down, co-existing besides the Oseophlon. It helped that both races were biologically compatible with each other, which further encouraged inter-relations.

The Alliance was winning and the majority of the darker or more sadistically demon races were already wiped out. The stranglers who had spurned the Alliance and gone into hiding would not last the next few months. Ambient magic was dwelling at a rapid rate, and in some places of the world, there was no longer any ambient magic.

Xander had switched his focus from the war, to finding beings with magic that were not aware of their supernatural origins. That concerned mostly the half-bloods and those rare humans born with the ability to manipulate magic. Most humans bear reservoirs of innate magic within their soul, especially those living on nexuses of power, however they would not be aversely harmed when those magic drained from them. Those that were born to manipulate magic or were closely tied to their magic, bears a different body structure, and would be keenly aware of the disappearance of power within them. Severe magic depletion would lead to a weakening of these beings, even as they proceed to have urges of unattainable cravings followed by death.

A number of human magic users and human half-bloods had no idea what they were suffering from. And because of the large number of humanity, even if 3% of the numbers were magically inclined and 2% were half-blood that did not know of their heritage, having all of them suffering from magic depletion was big news, especially when modern science could not detect what was wrong with them.

News of the “Shaking Fever” had spread quickly when the first case was identified a week ago, followed by an influx of hundreds of similar cases around the world. By the time the week was over, there was a total of thousands over cases. Fears of an epidemic ran wild, made worse when no one could identify the origin of the “virus” or how it was spread.

Xander had sent his armies scouring the hospitals over the world for those “infected”, restoring their innate magic with moon water, while revealing their supernatural existence to them. Seers of Wolfram and Hart were also deployed to scour for the rest that were not residing in hospitals.

Drusilla’s suggestions of building cloaked Alliance cities had been a blessing in disguise, for those cities which were built over periods of 2 weeks, now became an entry points to induct those newcomers to the supernatural community.

As of current time, there were twenty-five Alliance cities and seventy-two Alliance outposts around the world, including those on land, within the subterranean, and those in the ocean. The Alliance had two cities in the skies, and those belongs to the dragons Xander had called forth.

Xander, his armies and the supernatural beings of Earth that had joined the Alliance had finally came upon an agreed set of Alliance laws two days ago, with roles of governors of each cities filled in by one of Xander’s Heroes. An internal city council for each city would however be formed from those in the Alliance, including the supernatural communities that had joined.

That was why William was all packed up and ready to go. He and Drusilla needed a fresh start, a new beginning. It was also why Drusilla had agreed to take on the role as Governor of Twilight, the Alliance city in Alberta, Canada. The residents were to be made up mostly of Xander’s Night Elves, Human Warriors, and the occasional Frost Wyrms. The allied supernatural communities in the region had also agreed to send representatives to set up shops in the new city. In particular, one of the coven in the area had decided to make their new home in Twilight.

William in the meanwhile had taken up role as an instructor in the Alliance Academy of Twilight. History and English were after all subjects he was quite familiar with, though he serve mainly as the academy’s combat instructor.

“William, are you ready to go?” Drusilla asked, scattering William’s thoughts of the past. “The others are already at the Way Gate to see us off.”

“Let’s go my love.” William said slinging on his backpack effortlessly as he gave a dark chuckle. “You have a city to run and I have classes to prepare… not to mention students to torture.”

“… Maybe you should skip the dark jokes William. Try and remember you have a soul now.”

OoooO

1.1 – Drusilla’s stats

Designation: Governor of Twilight

Statistic Chart

Level 10

Name: Drusilla Sellars

Attack Type: Hero

Cost: 430 Gold, 100 Lumber, 5 Food

Ground Attack: 39-50 [43 avg]

Armor: 7 Strength: 34 Agility: 32

Intelligence: 40 Hit Points: 740 Mana: 600

Second Sight [UNLOCKED], a passive ability that allows the Vampire with a Soul, Drusilla, to view the past, present, or future.

Thrall [UNLOCKED], an active ability that allows the Vampire with a Soul, Drusilla, to take control of the mind of up to 3 targets for a period of time. 35 MP per use.

Telepathy [UNLOCKED], an active ability that allows the Vampire with a Soul, Drusilla, to read the mind of up to 3 targets. 40 MP per use.

Healing [UNLOCKED], an active ability that allows the Vampire with a Soul, Drusilla, to heal up to 5 targets. 30 MP per use.

OoooO

1.1 – William’s stats

Designation: Master of Arms (Twilight Academy)

Statistic Chart

Level 1

Name: William Pratt aka Spike

Attack Type: Hero

Cost: 260 Gold, 100 Lumber, 5 Food

Ground Attack: 42-55 [46 avg]

Armor: 9 Strength: 42 Agility: 35

Intelligence: 30 Hit Points: 900 Mana: 400

Poet’s soul [UNLOCKED], a passive ability that allows the Vampire with a Soul, Spike, to project emotions into poetries that he wrote and vocalised.

Thrall [UNLOCKED], an active ability that allows the Vampire with a Soul, Spike, to take control of the mind of the target for up to 12 hours. 30 MP per use.

Love [UNLOCKED], a passive ability that allows the Vampire with a Soul, Spike, to gain an increase of +50 Hit Points and + 5 Strength per level when those he loves are within range.

Brute Strength [UNLOCKED], a passive ability that increases the strength of the Vampire with a Soul, Spike, by +5 per level.

OoooO

>> [Draft] Interlude – The Shattering